Maze 4
(DISCLAIMER: Maze 4 does not exist. Please don't try to attempt this.) In Identity Fraud (1), a hidden maze can be explored adjacent to Maze 1--however, the conditions needed to access Maze 4 will require the player to trek through Mazes 2 and 3. The following is a roughly observed procedure needed to gain access to Maze 4. However, the procedure is incomplete as results have yet to successfully be replicated. The procedure here is entirely based in speculation as to what circumstances are needed to be met, as reaching Maze 4 has been achieved only once through several hours of messing around in a server that unintentionally lead to its discovery. Procedure for accessing Maze 4 1.) The player must have beaten Identity Fraud 1 and own the "You're a Winner!" badge. 2.) In the server, you must first visit the secret "NETGEAR®" room located in Maze 2 (presumably without dying once). There is no badge obtained from doing this, so if a mistake is made, you'll have to restart from here on a different server. Visiting the secret disco-party room is not required. (Note; I was unintentionally killed by Stan in the secret "NETGEAR®" room however this did not seem to ruin my access to Maze 4. This may be worth noting all the same.) 3.) Proceed to Maze 3 and locate James. Upon doing so, lure him back to the entrance of Maze 3 and into Maze 2. If you're fast enough, you can provide the same code you used to access Maze 3 to reopen the door. (If not, you may need a friend to help you.) James will follow you to a certain point into Maze 2 before either stopping completely or retreating back to Maze 3. If James stops and stands in place proceed to the next step. (Note; I'm not entirely sure what I did to get James to stand in place, but it's certainly possible.) 4.) Once James is standing in place in Maze 2, he'll become inactive and dormant. (Note; do not proceed to enter Maze 3 as doing so will make him active and dangerous again.) Once in the dormant phase, it is possible for you to go right behind him and to physically push him with your character without getting injured. You must then proceed to manually push the deactivated James all the way through Maze 2 to the exit of Maze 1 and push James into Maze 1. (Note; You can use a friend to help with reopening the door, or you can reset your character and walk all the way back to open the door as I had just to push James in once he was at the entrance.) (IMPORTANT: At this point, I've only been able to successfully perform steps 5 through 8 only once, and thus it’s important to note that steps 1 through 4 are incomplete as they by themselves are not enough to replicate what happens in step 5. That is to say there may be 1 or 2 steps missing that still need to be determined and completed before moving on to step 5. As to what they are, I am uncertain. The list of activities I did before step 5 ranged wildly from leading people to die unexpectedly to monsters to luring and manipulating monsters into mazes and areas they weren’t supposed to be in. Of those and the other random activities, I do not know specifically which ones were necessary and which ones were not of concern when obtaining access to Maze 4.) 5.) Once in Maze 1 with James, you'll need to locate Fraud and have it attack you on purpose while still being nearby James' location. Once attacked you'll need to both run away from Fraud and reach James before Fraud can kill you. (Note; While James won't attack Fraud in Maze 3, his strobe lights will glow white if Fraud gets near him in Maze 1, so long as all the important requirements have been performed.) If you can successfully manipulate Fraud by having it run into James while attacking, a loud bang will be made and your screen will flash white for a few moments. If this occurs, you have succeeded and can proceed on to the next step. 6.) After the white screen dissipates, you'll notice your character might have died and respawned randomly in Maze 1. You'll need to return to where you left James if this happens. When you return, you'll spot James in the dormant phase again along with Fraud who is now broken. (Fraud will now act and behave as if he was attacked and killed by Ralph. I've taken a picture to show the aftermath of performing step 5 on my first run as you can see below.) If you stand near the two characters for a while Fraud will audibly relay what will sound like gibberish made through a computer-generated TTS program. The message Fraud makes is a code played in reverse and you'll need to carefully listen to it and record it backward before decoding it. (It will repeat the message every 2-to-3 minutes if you miss it.) Once recorded backward you'll need to decode it as it will be in hexadecimal code. Once decoded, you'll end up with the message, "The mirror has moved," along with a randomized 8-digit number code. (Note; I asked other players if they could help me with deciphering the code, but apparently it could only be heard by me in-game.) I took this picture after performing step 5 successfully. Initially, I wanted to see if Fraud would get stuck on James if I stood behind him while Fraud tried to kill me. Instead, I ended up with a massive Easter egg by simply goofing around for several hours on a server. If you can get James to kill Fraud in Maze 1 like in the picture here, then you’ll be given the code needed to access Maze 4. 7.) Proceed to search for the mirror in Maze 1. As noted in the code, when I went to where the mirror would normally be located, it was instead replaced with a blank wall like all the other walls in Maze 1. It turns out the mirror was relocated to the opposite end of Maze 1, in retrospect to the location of the entrance to Maze 2. At least, that's where I believe it was relocated to, as there's no way to double-check that as of now. When I found the mirror at the end of a hallway, Ralph was positioned standing in front of the mirror. (Note; Before the events of step 4 I had purposely lured him far into Maze 2 out of my own amusement. To my knowledge no one else lured him back into Maze 1, so I believe he was teleported upon the events of step 5 transpiring.) First, I tried to lure him away from the mirror as he'd still chase after my character like normal, but oddly enough whenever he stood in place unattended for a certain amount of time he would then automatically return and walk back to the front of the mirror and stand there just like before. I ended up needing to constantly lure Ralph across a large span of Maze 1 just so that I could take an alternative route that could get to the mirror's new location before Ralph could return back to his post. (It also helped that the other players unintentionally distracted him on the way back.) Once in front of the mirror, I inputted the 8-digit code in chat. For a split second, the mirror depicted a silhouette of a character before vanishing. Then the mirror swung forward with the top edges landing onto the ground, creating a make-shift ramp leading up to the newfound hole in the wall. 8.) Upon walking in my character was sent into a freefall for a few seconds before transitioning servers similar to when changing chapters in Identity Fraud 2. Once loaded, my character resumed freefall for some moments before landing in Maze 4 itself as I was the only one listed in the server. (For the duration that I was down there for no one else had entered the server - just myself.) Upon entering, a timer of 15 minutes was displayed on my screen that started to count down immediately upon making impact with the floor below. Maze 4: I recall Maze 4 having dim lighting - not as dark as it is in Maze 3, but dark enough to the point you'd need to face closer to the computer screen just to see the finer details of the maze's interior as well as seeing whether any monsters were approaching down the long corridors or not. As for the floor, it was hardly visible. It had the faint traces of the cobblestone texture while submerged under a thick opaque layer of water which rose halfway up the leg or so. The walls consisted exactly like those of the hallway after Maze 3 that lead right up before the final boss room, except the arches here were narrower and the walls were much closer to each other just like in all the other mazes. Instead of a bright warm yellow light that illuminated in the space under the arches there was a faint blue one for every other opening as the majority of them bared emptiness predominantly. Then there was the ceiling, consisting entirely of a mirror that always faced the ground, reflecting my character and the interior of the maze upside-down. The walls shown in the mirror's reflection had lit torches, properly illuminating the corridors, whereas the side my character treaded through laid in near darkness. In terms of the maze's atmosphere, I'd best describe it as feeling cold, dark, and ominous. Furthermore, unlike the other mazes that are built on a grid of north, east, south, and west, Maze 4 was not constructed using the four cardinal directions; instead, it took on a triangular or hexagonal grid-like pattern, so that intersections could divulge into 6 different directions at most rather than just 4. The Monsters: Maze 4 was a nightmare, as I'm pretty sure all the monsters in-game were thrown in together, reskinned to better match the maze's color scheme and aesthetic. (The Last Hurdle was not present, and I don't recall ever running into Identity at all so those two are likely the only exceptions out of all of them.) Given that pathways could branch out more than they normally would, I didn't get cornered as often as you might expect. However, getting lost was much easier. That said, the monsters were noticeably more persistent on chasing me than they ever were in the previous mazes. Ralph: Every 3 minutes that went by on the timer, my character would suddenly trip up and tumble onto the floor and Ralph would spawn at either end of the hallway I was currently on moving closer and closer as my character would fumble to get back up. Coincidentally, however, placing a marker/arrow on the ground will freeze the timer for a couple of seconds as well as freezing certain monsters such as Ralph and James in place for that span of time. However, this comes with the setback of occasionally spawning Stan along with the marker if used, so I’d advise against using markers too often and only when necessary to save yourself. (Note; From what I can tell the freezing effect of markers will not work on Fraud, Stan, or Alice and can agitate Alice under certain conditions so they’re not a perfect fail-safe either.) Fraud: Fraud was also tweaked as they would opt to follow my character more often rather than retreat. In addition to this, Fraud had already mimicked the appearance of my character, except the accessories/hats/clothes would flicker visibly to show Fraud’s true form in between each flicker, as if to look intentionally bugged. Instead of waving, they’d make what looked to be a laughing gesture before making their attack. Fraud’s chase sequence wasn’t any different than before except for the fact that it would cause the maze to light up with bright blue light to the point that visibility was equally as bad as that of the darkness itself. The lights would cease when the chase did as well. (Seeing the dark-gloomy place bleached with the unexpected lighting really added to the sudden fear and panic you’d normally get when Fraud goes for the kill.) Stan: Stan behaved similarly as to before, except staring at him for too long would result in an infrequent event where my character would stop in place and the in-game menu would be forced open. During this, Stan would slowly drift closer to my character as my in-game cursor would move on its own with the intention of purposely resetting my character through the options menu. I could hit the “escape” key before it could do so, resulting in the menu closing and making Stan disappear, along with regaining full control of my character. In addition to this, If the player possesses the radar in their inventory when Stan screams at them, the radar will become disabled for a span of 30 seconds which will be marked under the tool's name at the bottom of the screen. While disabled the radar's screen will display red static and the red-yellow-green buttons with start flashing red at different intervals regardless of how close the player is to the nearest monster. In addition to this, the player will be unable to put the radar away until the disable timer has expired which will attract Maze 4's home monster to the player's current location. James: Seemingly normal forks in the road were made dangerous due to James, as he would have a tendency to seal off the pathways to dead ends, making them appear as ordinary walls - only for the wall itself to disappear with him standing behind it whenever I would get too close. Once revealed, his sound effects would blare out louder than usual. The camera would then pan and remain locked on his position for several seconds, forcing me to run backward, leaving me blind to the direction I was running in while trying to flee from him. After the camera lock was removed, James would slow down and grow increasingly quiet, making it very easy to lose him - only to eventually encounter him again at another random intersection without warning sometime later on. Alice: Alice, for the most part, didn’t show up as often as the others. She mostly appears and attacks if you stare at her, from what I could discern, just as she does in Maze 2. That said, she has a tendency to follow Maze 4’s home monster as the two share similarities to one another in appearance. Mira (placeholder name):''' I’ll be referring to the Maze 4’s monster as Mira given the nature of her maze. Similar to Alice, Mira, for the most part, remains invisible unless provoked by the player. Unlike Alice, who can hide her full appearance (with the exception of one of her eyes), Mira instead hides under the surface of the water that has partially filled up the hallways of Maze 4. If Mira approaches the player, she’ll slowly rise out of the surface of the water with a suspended pose similar to that of Fraud in the provoked state. When she retreats from the player, she’ll slowly submerge back into the water until completely hidden again. Unlike most of the other monsters, however, Mira doesn’t share any natural affinity for chasing or attacking the player. She'll instead, for the most part, wander about the maze aimlessly, ignoring the player with Alice typically close behind her. If the player for whatever reason stops and stands in place for too long, or has their radar out, she’ll start to approach and assault the player for a set duration of time or until the player puts their radar away. (If Mira is set to attack, she’ll make a splashing sound effect at a set interval that gets louder the closer she is to the player.) It should be noted in tight situations, dropping a marker/arrow will result in scaring Mira far away from the player if she’s close, resulting in her faintly screaming “no” as she retreats. If Alice is nearby, however, when Mira gets scared, Alice will grow increasingly agitated and hostile towards the player. She will proceed to stalk and torment them while inhuman sound effects play in the background. If Alice is provoked in this manner, she will move at a pace the player can easily outrun, but until the sound effects wear off, if the player ever takes a look at her under any circumstance, it will lead to a sudden cutscene where she lurches at and maims and player killing them instantly regardless of how far away she is to the player. (Note; Using the mirror-ceiling to look at her will not trigger the death cutscene, however, and always shows Alice's character model even when she makes herself invisible. That said, the easiest way to avoid dealing with Alice is to not scare Mira in the first place.) '''Dying in Maze 4: Unlike in Mazes 1, 2, and 3, dying will not result in the player respawning back to Maze 1. Given that Maze 4 exists in its own server, the player will instead respawn seemingly at random in Maze 4. Upon dying, half a minute will be deducted off the timer and the deduction will increase by an additional 15 seconds per consecutive death afterward. There is an exception - while getting killed by Stan, Fraud, James, Ralph, or Alice results in respawning in Maze 4 with a time-deduction, this is not the case when the player dies to Mira. For myself, I had a little less than 3 minutes left on my timer before accidentally running into Mira while James had my camera locked. Presumably, had I ran into any other monster, the time deduction would not have reduced the time to 0, but dying to Mira seems to result in getting kicked from the server. Due to this, I am unsure what exactly happens if the clock times out, though I presume the end result isn’t exactly pleasant. (For all I do know it will start to make audible ticking sounds upon reaching the 5-minute mark.) If you’re wondering, after I had gotten kicked from the game, I did make several attempts to find the server I had done this all in that had gotten me into Maze 4. While the trial and error to verify whether I was indeed in the correct server was time-consuming, eventually, I did find the same exact server that had James and Fraud both still standing at the front entrance to Maze 2. However, the maze had reverted back to what it was before, on further inspection. Ralph was no longer stationed to any one spot and the mirror had returned to its previous location. When I did find the mirror, I even entered the same code in the chat I had used previously but the mirror stayed the same. Even when I checked back with Fraud and James, Fraud was no longer relaying an audible message either despite me waiting 15 minutes just to listen for one. To cut it short it seems like access to Maze 4 is only granted once per server. Given the difficulty of achieving access to it as well as Maze 4 having a time limit, it would suggest the developers didn’t want other players to simply access Maze 4 an unlimited number of times without ever putting any effort to get there, and thus restrictions were enforced to maintain the maze’s secrecy as well as its difficulty. To this end, it may take multiple attempts before all of Maze 4 can be properly documented. I’m leaving this information out here in hopes that it may benefit anyone on finding Maze 4 for themselves. I’ll likely be toying around with the game some more and if I do find anything, I’ll be re-updating this page to reflect my findings. If requested I can provide a list of observations, details, and unrelated events that took place in the server I was in if anyone feels it will lead to any possible clues as to what steps are missing in the procedure but given the play session was over a span of many hours the list isn’t going to be something I can neatly fit in under a few sentences otherwise I would have listed all of them here. ( Again, Maze 4 doesn't exist! Please don't attempt this! ) Trivia * This is the only Maze in IF to be connected to a Maze with a lower number. Category:Mazes